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Cranky/Behind the Scenes
Background Information Television Series Cranky was introduced in the fifth series of the television series, and has appeared as one of the main characters since. As the fifth series was the first not to have any stories based on the Railway Series, Cranky was among the first characters not to originate from the book series and out of all the characters introduced in the fifth series, he is one of the very few characters to make frequent appearances since along with 'Arry and Bert. As with many major characters since the thirteenth series, Cranky has two seperate voice actors in both english dubs of the series. Matt Wilkinson provides Cranky with a standard British accent in the UK dub while Glenn Wrage gives Cranky a gruff American accent in the US, reflecting his ''Cranky ''personality. Gauge 1 model Cranky was designed by art director, Robert Gauld-Galliers and built by model-maker, Chris Lloyd. The model was built out of plastic mouldings and styrene card to standard 10mm to the foot. It had two motors and gearboxes. One was used to turn Cranky round and the other was used to control the winch. Both of these features were controlled from the same remote. The eye mechanism had two servos, one for up and down movement and one for left and right movement. The up/down servo was attached to the body. The left/right servo had a rod attached to the arm, which connected to a bracket. The eye balls were coupled to the bracket and locked in by the face-plate, so whenever the servos were powered, the eye balls would move however the crew member desired. Nine different facial expressions were sculpted for Cranky, although only eight were used onscreen.TomsProps on Twitter The faces were first sculpted in clay and from that resin casts were made using a silicone mould. Cranky has had modifications throughout the model era. These include *Series 5: **Chains held his crane arm to his body wrapped around a pipe between his nameplates. *Series 6: **Two metal strips are shown replacing the chains. *Series 8: **His nameboards are now positioned in the centre of his cranehouse roof. Cranky's model used to be on display in Canada at Nitrogen Studios. File:Crankyseason5designsheet.jpg File:Cranky1998Promo.png File:CrankySeason5Promo.png File:Thomas'NewTrucks99.jpg File:CrankyNitrogenStudios.png|Cranky's model at Nitrogen Studios File:Cranky'sFacemasks.png|Cranky's faces CGI model In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Cranky was recreated from scratch in CGI by Nitrogen Studios. His model was "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software. Photographs of Cranky's live-action model were used for referencing. According Greg Tiernan, every detail of the original television series models for each character is carefully reproduced in the CGI model. The models are subjected to many rounds of review before they are submitted to HiT Entertainment for final input and approval. Cranky has had modifications throughout the CGI era. These include: *Hero of the Rails: **His nameboards are positioned in centre of his cranehouse roof again. *Series 13: **The design of his hook changes. File:Head-OnCrankyPromo2.jpg File:Head-OnCrankyPromo.jpg File:CrankyPromo.jpg File:CreakyCranky15.png|Final Render File:CreakyCranky22.png|Hook File:CreakyCranky64.png|Winch System File:Percy%27sNewFriends25.png|Lamp Voice Actors * Matt Wilkinson * Glenn Wrage * Hisao Egawa * Takaya Kuroda * Christoffer Staib * Simen Sand * Walter Wiegand * Eckart Dux * Klaudiusz Kaufmann * Jarosław Domin * Piotr Bajtlik * Fabrice Trojani * Octavio Rojas * Jeremy Luton * Dan Schatzberg * Mauro Castro * Ricardo Vasconcelos * Ángel Amorós * Petri Hanttu * Loukas Frangoulis References Category:Behind the Scenes Category:Images of Cranky Category:Images from behind the scenes